I have a friend who is looking into getting one because he can disassemble it for cleaning, and as such, it can serve dual duty on his AR as well as his rimfire. I don't have any experience with the brand so I couldn't give him any practical advice. I thought i'd toss it up here on the 'Hide and see if anyone has any opinions. Feel free to PM if you would prefer not to post publicly.
Suppressors Anybody have any experience with a Huntertown Arms 5.56 Kestrel?
- Thread starter northshore440
- Start date
this was posted by another guy on a forum i frequent. its pretty critical of HTA and the Kestrel. he posted this late August of this year.
Fuck them, along their shit ass product, and customer service.
So now thats out of the way. I bought (2) suppressors from them, one for my AR (Kestrel) one for my 15/22 (Guardian SS). Stamps came in 2 months ago, so I go down to my dealers land to shoot them and try out some other class 3 goodies. Well first try the .22 on my 15/22 and with CCI standard velocity, the thing is stupid quite, Im impressed. Next I throw the Kestrel on my SBR with Innovatives Arms W.A.R. Upper (which is awesome!!). Fire the gun, fuck loud as hell, I mean my ears a bleeding loud (was wearing plugs, so not really, but you get the idea), shoots a massive fireball out the end (which my dealer got on video), and it wont cycle with the W.A.R. receiver on "suppressed". So we run a couple rounds through it thinking, things might change, nope, nothing.
Well, Im thinking now its just b/c it's on SBR its loud like that. Then next thing I know my dealer comes out with a Liberty, AAC, and an Innovative Arms Grunt Mini. We run them all on my SBR and what do you know it actually sounds suppressed and two of the three (Liberty was a little to loud not to wear plugs) were hearing safe, IMO for my ears, along with my dealer and buddy who were shooting it ears (and in before I get told about dB and the human ear and hearing loss), but the AAC and the Grunt Mini, worked awesome, sounded great, no massive fireball, and it cycled my BCG with the upper on "suppressed".
My dealer calls HTA, tells them whats going on, about the sound and fireball. They say weird and the fireball throughs up some red flags, so we send it back. About a month goes by and nothing, dont hear a word. Mined you Ive called them daily and sent emails, not a word back. I get my dealer involved and they give him the run around, for a couple weeks. Finally they get back to him, say the owner went and shot it, and tell us everything is fine and well within the specs, thanks for buying our can, and for buying it we cleaned it for free for you.
My dealer being a stand up guy, buys the can back from me and is giving me dealer pricing on an AAC SDN-6, really I couldnt ask anything more from my dealer, but fuck HTA.
I search the Hide high and low for feedback on suppressors (and other equipment) before I buy. I do not care if I am the guy who asks questions that seem to have been asked before. This is an expensive hobby and waiting several months for a product to arrive doesn't help. I have a MK13-SD and an Element 2 in hand and have fired them plenty and could not be happier. I also have a FA-556-212 due any day now, and a 762-SDN-6 that just went pending. And lots of other equipment that the members here have experience with. I would not have bought any of these without good reports, and lots of reports, from the field. I also have a pile of shit rifle that cost me several thousand dollars, and is costing me more to make right. And I hope my experience will keep others from making a similar mistake. The mistake...? I had not researched enough here on the Hide. I paid way too much attention to magazine advertisements and articles that are published by guys who write articles for a living. That review will be coming in about 4 weeks.
So take heed! If all you're hearing is crickets chirp, and seeing that review above, I might move on to another suppressor. Silence is the same thing as a bad review.
Edit: One other not so good sign is the non-response from the manufacturer. There are any number of shops that would have jumped into the discussion by now. I read this as a sign of future customer service you are likely to experience. And if I am really off the mark, experience tells me that all those happy Huntertown Arms customers will be biting my head off at any moment.
So take heed! If all you're hearing is crickets chirp, and seeing that review above, I might move on to another suppressor. Silence is the same thing as a bad review.
Edit: One other not so good sign is the non-response from the manufacturer. There are any number of shops that would have jumped into the discussion by now. I read this as a sign of future customer service you are likely to experience. And if I am really off the mark, experience tells me that all those happy Huntertown Arms customers will be biting my head off at any moment.
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